Share This Post

Continuing to make the case for the Marvel film’s academic merit, Black Panther will see its hero’s costume and a few other mementos from the film on display at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Black Panther was the first black superhero in mainstream comics and his film adaptation was always going to be meaningful to the community he represents.

The highly-acclaimed box-office champion maintained plenty of ties to the civil rights movement in the thematic ideologies of its warring characters (T'Challa and Killmonger both had some serious ideas about how Wakanda should operate in a global sense), marking its place as a landmark piece of black cinema that - similar to the Smithsonian itself, the museum said - “provides a fuller story of black culture and identity.”

Now part of that film will live at the museum, at least for a little while. According to the museum’s announcement, it acquired Chadwick Boseman’s supersuit, a signed shooting script (bearing the marks of Ryan Coogler, Kevin Feige, Nate Moore, and Joe Robert Cole), two pages of spec script, and two dozen high-res behind the scenes production photos for display.

These will be available for viewing during the first ever Smithsonian African American Film Festival, which runs from October 24 - 27, and perhaps after, depending on the response. According to the announcement, the National Museum of African American History and Culture is considering plans for the permanent acquisition and display of these markers of MCU history.

Video of Building Black Panther: The Work Of Christopher Priest (Behind the Panel) | SYFY WIRE